Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary, War Commentary

Ahmadinejad Is No Rube

14 Comments

He’s clearly got Barack Obama’s number:

Unlike the United States, Iran is run by adults. This is why the world fears Iran more than it fears the United States.

Has there been any rally to the side of the United States in this dispute?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows this and so he mocked Obama: “Mr. Obama, you are a newcomer (to politics). Wait until your sweat dries and get some experience. Be careful not to read just any paper put in front of you or repeat any statement recommended. (American officials) bigger than you, more bullying than you, couldn’t do a damn thing, let alone you.”

I remember thirty years ago, when there was so much “liberal” concern that Ronald Reagan would lead the US into war. But just as in 1938, it’s feckless thinking and policies like these that are much more likely to, and one for which we’re not prepared.

[Update a few minutes later]

Thoughts of allies and enemies past:

Why does this matter, other than that it is stupid for a country to treat old friends like belligerents and old belligerents like friends?

In the case of Britain, history resonates. Over the last century it was Britain that, sometimes alone, defended liberal constitutional government, whether from Prussian militarism or the hydra of fascism, Nazism, and Japanese militarism. It was always a reliable partner in the Cold War, and aside from normal periodic spats was a loyal ally in most of America’s postwar fights. We forget sometimes the courageous record of the British in Korea, or their lonely alliance with us in Iraq. Note that this is all apart from the British role in general in the shaping of Western liberal political history, and in particular the protocols and values that underlie so much of the American experiment, from a common language to a rich heritage of literature and thought. For an American president to be woefully ignorant of all that, and why it should count, is nothing short of unbelievable.

Obama is equally clueless about why, for a half-century at least, both Republican and Democratic presidents have forged a second special relationship, this one with Israel. There certainly were not always strategic advantages in doing so, given the Arab world’s vast petroleum reserves, its huge size and population in comparison to tiny Israel, and the global fear, first, of rampant Soviet-inspired Palestinian terrorism, and, subsequently, its radical Islamic epigone.

But he’s throwing that all away. Let’s just hope that 2013 isn’t too late to resurrect the relationships.

History, Political Commentary

No Roosevelt

11 Comments

Democrats fantasize that Barack Obama is the new FDR. But I think that history will view him as the Democrats’ Herbert Hoover.

Discuss.

[Noon update]

Not that he can’t be usefully compared to other presidents as well, but the parallels I was thinking of were:

  • Had a major financial crisis in his first term, made immeasurably worse by economically ignorant policies of his own
  • Lost over fifty House seats in his mid-term Congressional election, and eight Senate seats
  • Lost in a landslide in his reelection, cementing the fortunes of the opposing party for many years

The latter two are predictions, of course. And Hoover didn’t lose control of Congress. Obama doesn’t have that kind of margin in the House…

[Afternoon update]

Obama the undergrad:

He doesn’t know much history (he thinks Muslims invented printing), geography (his America has 57 states), or economics (he believes you can reduce health care costs by adding millions to the public rolls).

The most important thing to this president is how you feel and what you say, not all those annoying facts (50 states, the Chinese invented printing, and you increase deficits when you spend more). And, like most students, when the debate goes badly for him, the president makes fun of his critics–when he actually lets them talk a little bit. Remember when he hosted a few Republicans in the White House so he could listen to what they might say about health care…and then talked twice as much as they did?

As a typical undergrad, Obama loves to talk, and loves to talk about peace and justice. You know, the really important things. His new nuclear policy is right out of a college bull session: “Why don’t we just promise not to use them?” Nukes are bad, ugly things. Doesn’t everyone agree that the world would be better off without them?

As Michael notes, grading time is coming up this fall. Expect him to whine about them.

Political Commentary, Space

Ah, Youth

3 Comments

This was kind of amusing:

On Sunday a group of Embry-Riddle students organized their own “Roadside Awareness Rally” about the new plan, holding signs along a Daytona Beach road with slogans like “Let Us Go To The Moon” and, bizarrely, “Constellation will REVIVE our WORLD’S ECONOMY!” (um, points for enthusiasm, at least.)

Constellation: like alcohol, it is the cause of, and solution to all of life’s problems.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Rewriting History

9 Comments

Apparently, Hollywood (and Abu Dhabi) are up to their old tricks again, demonizing and lying about the Bush administration, in a new fictional movie about the Plame affair. This is a consequence of the fact that so much Hollywood money comes from overseas, to make movies planned in advance to appeal to anti-American sensibilities. That’s one of the reasons there were so many troop-bashing and America-bashing movies about Iraq in the past few years, that bombed at the American box office.

It would be amusing to raise some money in America to do the real story, and see which does better with the audience.

Political Commentary, Space

No Shuttle Extension

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Or at least NASA’s not counting on one:

NASA will pay $335 million to Russia for four round-trip flights to the International Space Station in 2013 and 2014 under the terms of a new deal announced today by the American space agency.

The contract extends previous agreements with the Russians that ensure the station can keep a six-member crew after NASA retires the shuttle this year.

I wonder what the termination clause is if there is a decision to extend?

Political Commentary

Liberty? Freedom?

16 Comments

“What’s that?,” asks Harry Reid:

Reid said he understands why some are angry at government and Washington during an economic recession that cost people jobs and sent the home foreclosure rates skyrocketing.

But he expressed confusion about what the Tea Party movement wants when its members call for more liberty and freedom and cite the Constitution in denouncing what they see as an expansion of the federal government, including with health care reform.

“The people who are really upset don’t really know why they’re upset,” Reid said.

“What do they mean?” Reid said he wonders when they call for more liberty and freedom. “I’m happy to talk about issues.”

“They want things to be the way they used to be,” Reid said. “They will never be the way they used to be.”

Well, I’m glad that I have intellectual betters like Harry Reid to tell me why I’m really upset.

Is he really this clueless, or does he just play it on teevee?

And did he notice that he could only get one percent of the number to turn out for his campaign start as showed up to protest him a week and a half ago? Oh, well. He’ll get a chance to spend more time with his family in a few months.

[Update a while later]

Harry Reid’s son is also going down in flames in his race for governor.

Good.